Linear Technology & Energy Micro Demonstrate the Future of Smart Energy Harvesting
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Electronica 2010
Linear Technology Booth A4.538
Energy Micro Booth A4.349
Linear Technology & Energy Micro Demonstrate the Future of Smart Energy Harvesting
Oslo, Norway, November 9th, 2010 - Linear Technology and Energy Micro have combined their expertise in energy harvesting power supplies and ultralow power 32-bit microcontrollers to produce a ground-breaking demonstration at Electronica 2010, showcasing the opportunities for smart energy harvesting applications.
Based on Energy Micro's low cost starter development kit, the demonstration relies on Linear Technology's LTC®3588 piezoelectric energy harvesting power supply and Energy Micro's ARM® Cortex(TM)-M3 enabled EFM32 Gecko microcontroller to create a wireless sensor node acquiring data from a 3-axis accelerometer and transmitting it over a Zigbee RF transceiver.
The energy harvested from a piezoelectric transducer is stored on a capacitor bank for later consumption by the accelerometer and radio according to the MCU's optimized sequencing software. The EFM32 Gecko spends the majority of its time in sleep mode until woken by the LTC3588's 'power good' signal. The MCU monitors energy levels at all times to ensure total circuit consumption stays below harvested energy levels.
"Using sustainable kinetic, photovoltaic and thermal energy sources to power microcontrollers requires energy harvesting power supplies capable of both very high efficiency conversion and very low quiescent power loss," said Don Paulus, Vice President & General Manager of Power Products at Linear Technology. "At the same time, microcontrollers have to play their part, offering very low power operating modes and the application software flexibility to make the best use of the harvested energy - the EFM32 Gecko MCU provides such attributes."
Øyvind Janbu, CTO, Energy Micro said, "Linear Technology's ultralow power energy harvesting power supplies match perfectly well with the needs of the EFM32's energy modes. This demonstration illustrates the tremendous opportunities open to designers of smarter energy harvesting products. There is no penalty for using 32-bit microcontrollers in such applications, the component technology already exists and it's available off-the-shelf." Further information on the energy harvesting solution from Linear Technology and Energy Micro can be found at www.energymicro.com/energyharvesting
For further information and reader enquiries:
Peter Hellström, Linear Technology AB, P.O. Box 35, (Teknobulevardi 3-5)
FIN-01531 Vantaa, Finland
phellstrom@linear.com
Tel: 358-9-2517-8200
Fax: 358-9-2517-8021
Øyvind Borgan, Energy Micro AS, PO Box 4633, Nydalen, N-405 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 23 00 98 00 o.borgan@energymicro.com
Fax: +47 23 00 98 01 www.energymicro.com
For further information or to discuss feature article opportunities:
Rob Davies, Publitek Limited, 18 Brock Street, Bath, BA1 2LW, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1225 470 000 rob.davies@publitek.com
Fax: +44 (0)1225 470 047 www.publitek.com
About Linear Technology
Linear Technology Corporation, a member of the S&P 500, has been designing, manufacturing and marketing a broad line of high performance analog integrated circuits for major companies worldwide for three decades. The Company's products provide an essential bridge between our analog world and the digital electronics in communications, networking, industrial, automotive, computer, medical, instrumentation, consumer, and military and aerospace systems. Linear Technology produces power management, data conversion, signal conditioning, RF and interface ICs, and µModule® subsystems. For more information, visit www.linear.com.
About Energy Micro
Energy Micro develops, markets and sells the world's most energy friendly microcontrollers, based on the industry leading ARM® Cortex(TM)-M3 32-bit architecture. The company was founded in 2007 by experienced semiconductor professionals with previous expertise from Chipcon, Texas Instruments, Atmel and Nordic Semiconductor. Energy Micro is backed by leading Nordic investors Northzone Ventures and Investinor. More information on Energy Micro is available at www.energymicro.com
